Home Group selected to house Newcastle's homeless

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Homeless people living on Tyneside are set to benefit from improved services after Home Group was selected to provide them with accommodation.

Newcastle City Council has picked the 55,000-home social landlord to support vulnerable people living in the area who would otherwise be sleeping rough or be at risk of homelessness.

After a bidding process, Home Group was awarded three contracts which will mainly focus on city-wide support for young homeless people, providing crisis accommodation in the east of the city and supported accommodation throughout Newcastle.

The social landlord will provide accommodation for up to 375 people at any one time – more than half of the 700 bed spaces available for vulnerable people in the city.

Rachael Byrne, Home Group's executive director of care and support said: “We’re delighted that we’ll be able to use our years of expertise to reach even more vulnerable people in Newcastle and help them to improve their lives.

“We’ve run the Tyneside Foyer in the city centre for a number of years and it has supported countless young people in times of crisis and helped them to move onto independent living. As a not for profit company our main goal is to provide homes for those who need them.”

Home Group will work with other organisations including DePaul UK, Albert Kennedy Trust, The Salvation Army, St Vincent DePaul, Tyne Housing and the North of England Refugee Service.

The three new contracts will see an increase in provision for those in need of crisis accommodation and those from the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities.

All clients will be able to enrol on Home Group’s employability programmes which will aim to help them build skills and qualifications to improve their job opportunities.